Shell largely gave the City it wanted to hear last week at its capital markets day, said analysts, even though the oil major enraged climate activists.
UBS said the update overall was positive as the increase in shareholder returns is close to consensus expectations, capex guidance is lower for 2024-25, which was not expected we believe, and the company targets cost-cutting of US$2-3bn by the end of 2025.
Liberum added it largely liked the messaging, ie continuing the focus on gas / LNG, increasing the distribution policy and de-emphasising renewables.
For oil/liquids, the ‘flat’ production to 2030 is an improvement.
Jefferies added that the 15% DPS increase is close to the low end of expectations, but does not include the annual policy increase and the offset for buyback share accretion, which could represent a further 10% increase before year-end.
Jefferies and UBS are buyers with price targets of 3,000p and 2,750p respectively.